Two Empty Graves, Two Martyr's
On the last row of the Srinagar’s Martyr’s graveyard, two graves- adjacent to each other- await the mortal remains of two Kashmiri men who were hanged in India’s Tihar Jail and buried within the jail premises. One grave awaits since 1984 while the other, since 2013. On one epitaph the inscription in archaic Urdu reads, “The martyr of the nation, Mohammad Afzal Guru, Date of Martyrdom: 9th February 2013 Saturday, whose mortal remains are lying in the custody of the Government of India. The nation is awaiting its return.” The other epitaph reads exactly the same but with a different name and date. The other grave is reserved for Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, who was hanged in Tihar jail on 11 February, 1984. Kashmiris strongly believe that both – Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat – were wrongly hanged by the Indian Government and were not given a fair trial. In the year of 1962, Muhammad Maqbool Bhat, a resident of Trehgam village in Kupwara, formed a movement called Kashmir Independence Committee (K...